FLASHBACK! The Day We Untied the docklines and left

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Patrick and Rebecca 2007!!!

It was September 30, 2007…the day we untied the docklines and finally left to go cruising! This is what I wrote in the journal that day. Both as we untied the lines, and as we arrived in our first port that evening. And then as we began our sail down the coast stopping to say goodbye to friends along the eastern seaboard of the USA. It seems like yesterday, but yet a lifetime ago too.

We have lost touch with almost all of our friends in Rhode Island now, though one the other day told me we are still the topic of conversation at their backyard barbecues. Their children who were in grade school are having children of their own now, and my parents are both going quite grey, while Patrick’s parent have now both passed away. A lot has changed. But a lot has stayed the same too.

This post is dedicated to those friends who still remember us and follow our blog and travels in Rhode Island…

This post is dedicated to our family back home, that although I didn’t shed that tear as I departed in sheer joy, I cry for you every day, and greatly feel the separation that my travel bug induces but that I can’t seem to shake.

We love you all, and being away from you is the WORST part of cruising.

 

The docklines are untied!!

30 September 2007 | Narrangansett Bay, Motoring out to the ocean!
Rebecca Childress
The wind blew from the north all morning which would have been ideal for our long awaited departure, but we still had a few more things to do.
Go pick up the strawberries and the Mikes hard LimeAid from last nights party, go get a new sheave at West Marine that Patrick decided needed to be fixed late last night, and a quart of milk so that we didnt have to unfreeze the milk in the freezer for cereal!
Hand over the car to my friend Tammy who let us keep the car she bought from us, right up to departure when she bought it from us weeks ago! What a gift that was to us.
We untied the docklines as people waved to us and wished us a happy safe journey…some of whom we had never even gotten to really meet due to being so busy this summer, upgrading the boat, and getting ready for this day…
We are leaving so many friends, family, yet I can not shed a tear…I am so excited to be finally underway! Im sure it will hit me soon just how long it will be til I see everyone again! Our final party last night was a “full moon” party, at our dear friends Bill and Dianes house. They have an inground pool that they heated up to 94 degrees, as well as a hot tub!
The best thing said all night to me was ” You told us a year ago youd be going in a year…and here it is – TOMMOROW! You didn’t find any reason not to go or to delay your departure..you set your mind to it and you made it happen! He was right on target with that! How nice it is to be with Patrick- he set his mind to doing this with me many years ago- and here we are, leaving the dock and motoring towards the ocean. We havent even decided where we are going yet! Block Island? Watch Hill? Pt Judith!? Nice to have no destination, no schedule.
Thank you to all of our friends and family who made living on the boat and getting ready to go so much fun! Thank you for following our adventures on this blog and in Blue Water Sailing Magazine! Your hearts, your faces, and all the good times we have had will stay in our hearts wherever we go, and we will see you when we return!

We arrived to our first port of call, New Harbor, Block Island tonight at 8pm

30 September 2007 | Block Island, RI
Rebecca Childress

We arrived in a very dark harbor tonight- the moon was hidden, in to Block Island – New Harbor earlier tonight. We had a wonderful Salmon dinner, spiced potatoes, and a fresh garden salad. We baked chocolate chip cookies for dessert and snacks tomorrow. Patrick is sound asleep and snoring. I am experimenting with electricity ( wind generator), and our fantastic wifi connection in the harbor here. The antenna and wifi card that I bought was money well spent! But what if they break!?!? Better get to bed soon…but wantt to let you know how the first day of our circumnavigation went!!…Patrick mentioned something about jogging the island all day tomorrow so I cant write too much! Its a good thing Tammy made chocolate chip cookie dough for times like these!! We will leave here Tuesday or Wednesday I think. Maybe our friend Bob will come out to sail to somewhere in Long Island Sound with us.

A couple of fun things on the way over to Block Island, out of Newport Harbor:
1. Came up on a little boat, from behind. It was Mariah and her friend Bob out for a daysail on their Oday 22 – the boat I used to own with Mariah. We waved, and said our goodbyes for 4 years. Cutter, her golden retreiver was on the bow with her. It was nice to see her one last time before departing. A million boats in the harbor, and we almost ran her down by accident!
2.I was so ecstatically happy and high on life leaving Newport Harbor, that a boat passed port to port, travelling in the opposite direction, but very close to us. It was a nice family with 2 young kids…I smiled and waved and said – “we are leaving to go around the world – and this is our first day!!!” They smiled and waved and cheered us on. Patrick and I grinned at eachother the whole way to Block Island. I just looked in on him, and hes smiling in his sleep! I’m not sure who is happier to finally be underway, witht he first day of our circumnavation completed..he or I. Its so great that we are both so happy though..its more than I ever dreamed would happen in my little old life! I am sailing around the world – one day at a time! Life could NOT be better! If you think Im really lucky to be doing this…you are 110% correct!

Its already warmer!

03 October 2007 | Westbrook, CT
Rebecca Childress
Yes, I know, we are only 100 miles away at best, but last night we shed 2 layers of blankets, and are back to flipflops this morning! Our friend from Connecticut didnt make the ferry, so he instead met us here to help us in to the dock, and take us out for dinner. He was very kind to us…two Black Douglas Tshirts, a very nice bottle of wine, and a fantastic dinner and wine at a local restaurant. It was a harbor with very shallow water to enter in the dark, but it was worth it for his nice welcome! Today we leave to travel further down the coast, maybe as far as Stamford Ct. The next day…New York City!

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Mouse Eats Dinghy…storage NONOs for an Inflatable Dinghy

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A memory from before we started Cruising…

23 August 2007
We sold the hard dinghy yesterday since we had two Dinghys and couldn’t take both of them with us. We werent even done washing it, and it sold right out from underneath of us!
Then we rolled out the inflatable which was to be our dinghy for the trip. (Whichever one didnt sell first was to be our dinghy to start off with). The inflatable had a grapefruit size hole in it! A mouse had eaten in to it and made it its home – it had sat in our shed for the last few years. It was very dissapointing. $260 to fix it professionally – and it wasnt in the easiest place to fix – seams in the way and all.
So, we started researching RIBs, which is really what we wanted anyways. This boat will be dragged over coral and rocks on an every day basis and sit in the hot tropical sun day in and day out…so a RIB, with a hard bottom but inflatable sides is hopefully the best of both worlds for us…Easier to get in and out of in the weater, for snorkelling and swimming and using our new SeaBreathe unit…Easier to Row than a traditional inflatable, and can be abused a bit. We got a decent deal at a local chandler, and he took our trade in of the cheap inflatble with the grapefruit size hole in it. SO we are happy, although a little broker. Its a NICE Rib, by Avon, brand new, and waiting for us to pick her up in the morning!
Now instead of selling the 5HP that we WERE selling, I guess we will sell the 2.5 HP instead…
(Update years later…we sold the 5HP, have baught two 15HP engines since, and we still have that 2.5 HP Mercury!)
To find the Dinghy right for you, please use my Amazon Links below to start your shopping. Hopefully this helps you, and it helps us too!

 

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Newlyweds on Boat – Week One…Marital Bliss…and Two is a Crowd!

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This is a post from our old blog, July 13, 2017. Some of these things we don’t even think about anymore…but some of these things make me laugh…because 11 years later…they are still a pain in the butt! Can you guess which ones?

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We are married now and living aboard!

13 July 2007 | Sakonnet Brewers Marina
Rebecca Childress

Sorry I havent written for a while…a lot has been happening!

Patrick and I got married on the 4th of July. Everything went just the way we planned it, and it was a beautifull memorable day in every way…From walking down the aisle (dock) with my dad, to stopping the progression to have my picture taken with dad by Ian- Patricks brother in law that managed to make it to the wedding despite a death in his family, to almost losing my vail every 60 seconds… Patrick was an unbelievable groom holding my hands through much of the ceremony, and shedding a tear or two during our vows! He made the most eloquent, complimentary toast after the wedding that I will remember forover. Married on the front of the bow, Patrick and I will celebrate every 4th of July for a while, wherever we are in the world, right where we got married- on the bow of our Brick House! The fireworks at the end of the evening on a neighboring tour boat – The Gansett, a beautiful boat from Maine, were fantastic – we were up very close, and despite the pouring rain, we were comfortable, dry , well fed and well lubricated!!It was truly a wonderful day!

Two days after the wedding, we had to prepare our house for our tenants, and for our move on to Brick House.

A couple of thoughts about the process so far ( We have been officially onboard now for 3 days and 2 nights…this being our 3rd.)

1. We are ALWAYS in eachothers way- it takes repacing oneself to just wait for the person to finish what they are doing so you can pass by them. It seems to take Patrick less getting used to than me…maybe he just has more patience. I LOVE being with him all the time and having him so close to me, but it does get annoying to always have to stop dead in my tracks to wait for him to move!! I suppose I will either get used to that, or get more aggravated by it!

2.The refrigeration is COMPLETELY broken now…Once in a while we buy something cold and a package of icecubes, but for the most part we are just eating things that either don’t have to be refridgerated, or are taking chances with things that are SUPPOSE to be refridgerated but arent. For example…I have discovered today that MILK will help with constipation if left out of the refridgrator for 24 hours.. Not enough to make you sick, just enough to be medicinal!

3.The stove/oven is somewhat on its last legs…We are down to just 2 working burners. We havent tried the oven yet, but assume that it works. We are trying to find a deeply discounted one, or slightly used one to replace the old one with, since most of the parts arent made for that stove any more.

4.The fresh water – well both tanks had more wildlife in them than water. We think one tank is leaking although we arent sure if it’s a tank, a fitting or a hose yet. The baffle ( a wall diving the tank in half so large amounts of water don’t wildly move from side to side while in waves) was completely broken in one of the tanks. This was allowing the huge amount of water in the tank, along with the huge metal baffled to slosh around the tank…Always wondered what that loud crashing noise coming from that tank was all about…We have found a paint to put inside the tanks to hopefully buy some more life from the tanks. We know sister-ships who have since replaced their water tanks – so we know we are on borrowed time with these 30+ year old tanks. So the tanks are clean at least now…but we still have to find out if the glue we used (3M 5200) to put the baffle backtogether will always be a source of poison for us to drink or not. Someone says it has arsenic in it to help it cure…

5.I have WAY to many clothes, and we have way too many books. The next several weeks will be spent further paring things down, in addition to getting the boat ready to depart! Patrick has about 6 tshirts, 3 of which he says he will throw out when they get dirty. I must have 50 t-shirts…so far I’ve been able to part with 3 of them.

6.We have a nice boat! Despite many systems still needing TLC I look around our boat and are so pleased with the progress since the boat came out of the water 3 years ago. She is our home, and both of us have spent hours lounging at night, beaming about how nice our home is coming along!

We are happy to be aboard, and feel so fortunate to be with another person that is as equally excited about this whole thing11…We can’t believe we found eachother, and that our whole adventure has begun!! 6-8 more weeks at the dock, and then we cut the cords, and take off!!

We hope you will follow our adventures on this web site! I will try to update it a little sooner next time!!! Stay tuned!

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